Chapter 53
Chapter 53
“Ms. Nari!”
“Ah, back off a little!”
“Ms. Nari! We were so scared. We thought we were going to die! What is this place? I barely managed to find you. And what is with my outfit?! Is this your taste?!”
“Would it be?! Keep your voice down for a second!”
Kang Ihyun, dressed in a white rabbit costume, clung to her and started sobbing out loud. Nari let out a long sigh, patted his head a few times, and pushed him away. Kang Ihyun sniffled.
After hearing a rough explanation of the situation from Kang Ihyun, Nari slapped her own forehead. It was time to leave the fairy tale and return to reality.
“Anyway, let’s get out of here quickly. We just need to take Jeong Suho with us too, right?”
“You can take him out even if Mr. Suho is not here?!”
“As long as we recognize that we are trapped together, it works. The Lord of Chaos was the same.”
Kang Ihyun nodded. He was not sure it would work, but this was Nari’s deep world. Nari gripped Kang Ihyun’s hand firmly and slowly approached the white door.
With her hand on the white doorknob, Nari suddenly looked back. Kang Ihyun was awkwardly smiling at her while absentmindedly fiddling with his rabbit ears with a puzzled expression. Nari cleared her throat.
“That is a good outfit.”
“Really?”
“Yes. it said… only the person I trust the most would appear like that.”
She muttered it, and Kang Ihyun did not answer. Feeling a little embarrassed, Nari lifted her gaze. Kang Ihyun was staring at her and blinking.
“It said it was the appearance of someone who seems like they would protect me no matter what.”
Stammering, she turned her head again. Kang Ihyun kept looking at her. Her ears were red, so it did not seem like a lie.
The person she trusts most. The person who seems like they would protect her no matter what. Hearing that washed away all of Kang Ihyun’s inner conflicts.
To Kang Ihyun, Shin Bitnari was truly a mystery. She said exactly what he wanted to hear, right when he needed it. Without even realizing he was anxious, she put him at ease.
“…Ms. Nari.”
“Hmm?”
Nari snapped around to look at him. Her short frame and black eyes shone. For some reason, she looked more at ease than usual.
“I, well.”
He had actually planned to say it right here. About Nari’s patron constellation, about the Creator, about how the Lord of Chaos might not be dealing with her out of simple goodwill.
But he decided to let it lie for now. Only now could he finally see Nari looking this bright.
In that state, there was no way he could tell her that the patron constellation he had trusted for years might be trying to use her.
So instead, he decided to act like the person she trusts most should act.
“No matter what happens, I will protect you. I will find you for sure. I can do it.”
There was no reply. He pressed his chest to steady his anxious heart. At some point, Nari had been looking at him with a wide smile. Kang Ihyun met it with an overflowing smile of his own.
If he could bring out a smile like that, it was enough. For the first time, Kang Ihyun felt that a part of him was being acknowledged.
* * *
“Ha…!”
Jeong Suho collapsed to the floor and sat there, gasping for breath. After firing the thirtieth silver dagger at Nari, Kang Ihyun had said he found Nari and then collapsed on the spot.
While Jeong Suho was protecting Kang Ihyun, he fought Nari for a long time after that.
[Trait :: Little Explorer in Dreams activates!]
[This floor has already been cleared. You exit this deep world.]
[Playercount: 3, Rank 1]
With the message window, the world shattered to pieces. After black darkness flooded his vision, what appeared was the maze of the gate where the screams had been coming from.
Thud. The footsteps of the Minotaur echoed, and Jeong Suho frowned. His whole body ached. Facing Nari had been far more exhausting than facing the Minotaur.
He felt as if he could collapse at any moment, yet he had only just now returned to the starting point. It had been a very long time since he felt like this.
[Level 2 Gate Boss Monster :: You confront the Prince of Misfortune!]
Thud. A gigantic Minotaur with the head of a bull and the body of a man stood right before him. Kang Ihyun and Nari clearly had not arrived here yet. That meant he had to face it first.
‘But…’
But he lacked confidence. Jeong Suho gripped the pistol inside his cloak. The countless failures already carved into his body replayed in his mind, along with the intense pain and mental shock he had felt each time he fought this monster.
[Kuooooo!]
The Minotaur raised its axe. Jeong Suho focused magic into his eyes. His blue eyes shone a bright azure. He might be able to do it. No, he had to do it.
Crash. The axe slammed into the floor at high speed. The floor of the labyrinth cracked, and shards flew. A gray fog swirled around them.
“Ugh…!!”
[Ranger Exclusive Basic Skill :: Territory Declaration]
Jeong Suho instantly poured magic into his legs and sprinted, using the flying fragments as footholds. Click. He drew two muskets from wherever he could and aimed through the fog at the silhouette.
‘If I could just get rid of the fog…!’
He would shoot.
As he stared at the thinning fog, a second axe came slicing through the air toward his face.
‘...?!’
Huh. It had never used a second axe before. But it was always like this. This damned Minotaur grew stronger as it fought him. It felt like training an AI.
At this rate, he was going to die. That was when this happened.
“Mr. Jeong Suho!”
Clang! Someone stepped in front of him. Wearing a priest’s garb and holding a silver dagger, Kang Ihyun blocked the axe one-handed.
“Kgh…! Mr. Suho! Are you okay?!”
[Trait :: Master of Good and Evil activates!]
A yellow demonic energy clung to Kang Ihyun’s hand, which was obviously twisted at an odd angle and trembling. With a creaking sound, his arm returned to normal.
Jeong Suho looked ahead. Kang Ihyun pulled out two or three more silver daggers and unfurled a yellow sacred healing veil around his body.
At that moment, wind blew from behind Jeong Suho.
Whoosh. A black wind swept all the fog away. No, it was not wind. It was black spirit energy. Jeong Suho looked back. Footsteps clicked.
A cool hand slid onto his shoulder where he had fallen. Jet-black hair, black eyes, a presence that made him feel faint. Lude, no. Shin Bitnari was supporting him as he was about to collapse.
“…Are you alright?”
“Y-Yes.”
At Lude’s question, Jeong Suho nodded.
Nari had wondered how they should act once they finally knew each other’s identities. Jeong Suho had also worried about how to face the true Nari. Faced with the real situation, all of that was useless.
“You can speak now?”
“Mhm. This is the status ailment I originally had, so...”
“...You really are amazing.”
Lude gripped Suho’s shoulder tightly. It was now or never. Kang Ihyun, as if to buy time, stood off with the Minotaur, silver daggers in hand. Lude spoke in a whisper close to Suho’s ear.
“…I am sorry.”
“Huh?”
When Suho looked up in surprise, Lude covered his field of view. The black wind surged, and Lude’s voice grew higher and thinner.
“There is no need. You don't have to meet me after you fix everything. I don't yet know what is different about you, but you can tell me when you are ready.”
It was the voice Jeong Suho had heard most often in his school days. Nari’s voice murmured to him.
“It was all my fault. I had no right to say that to you. I am sorry, it was not what I truly felt.”
Jeong Suho was extraordinary. If he was not interested in something, he refused with everything he had. If it was something he liked and the circumstances allowed, he would dig into it for days.
He was clumsy every day, and he could not tolerate irritants. He had to clear them away quickly. That often caused him pain, but perhaps that was why he had been able to clear away even his own status ailment.
Nari looked up at Suho. Jeong Suho was a single-stroke person, the straightest line she had ever seen.
He was a friend with many strengths. He was suffering because of her. Nari looked away from Jeong Suho’s eyes. After seven years, blue eyes and black eyes met. Nari smiled apologetically.
“You are a wonderful person, Suho.”
Suddenly Nari was pulled downward. Suho was holding him tight.
Seven years of misunderstanding and conflict dissolved with ridiculous ease. Of course, Nari had gone through countless inner struggles before she could apologize to Jeong Suho.
Nari slowly pressed her hands against Suho to push him away, as if to say he would not let go again.
“N-Nari.”
“Later. Right now, Kang Ihyun is giving it his all. That hurts him a lot.”
Nari looked toward Kang Ihyun fighting the Minotaur. He was facing it with small daggers and a sacred healing veil.
Whenever he was injured, demonic energy wrapped around him, but Nari could see it. Unlike holy power, it did not heal him perfectly.
Nari did not know how Kang Ihyun had come to use demonic energy, but that was not what mattered now.
“I will use Lucid Dream, so you…”
“No. It is fine.”
Jeong Suho set Nari back down and rose to his feet. The cloak marked with the sigil of the Wargod flared once.
Jeong Suho usually spoke slowly, but when he was utterly serious, he sometimes spoke very quickly. His blue eyes filled with magic and blazed.
“I can do it alone.”
“What?! No, we came with you because it is too much to do alone!”
“I will finish quickly.”
Ignoring Nari’s words, Jeong Suho drew a gatling gun from inside his cloak. He glanced back at Nari sitting there.
A dense surge of deep blue magic bubbled up under his feet. He knit his brow slightly and wore a confident look. Most of the time he was gentle, but sometimes he showed a charismatic expression when he truly had confidence.
“And you told me I am wonderful. So it will be fine.”
He looked forward again, focused magic into his legs, and leapt. Nari had told him he was wonderful. She had told him it was fine to meet like this.
Jeong Suho’s face turned fierce. He was the kind of person who could not stand to leave something annoying in front of him.
He wanted to catch up with Nari right now and talk about everything they had missed. But this thing was in the way.
Boom!! The Minotaur swung its axe again. Shards flew in all directions. Two blazing eyes glared, and an eye-shaped mark appeared on its forehead.
[Status Ailment :: Overfocus disappears!]
[Trait :: You acquire Overfocus! You focus excessively. Everything around you vanishes from sight. Pure magic concentrates.]
Everything that stood between the Minotaur and Jeong Suho’s gatling gun fluttered away like a mirage.
Pure magic forged by terrifying concentration gathered into the gatling gun. In this moment, there was nothing in the world but the Minotaur, himself, and the desire to erase this obstacle.
When the gatling could grow no hotter, he spoke.
“You are in the way.”
[Ranger Exclusive High Tier Skill :: Concentrated Fire]
Bang-!! He pulled the trigger.